Escape!
by TheWanderingAvarian
Summary: It was a relatively mundane day for Sania when Gerald the frog decided to make his daring escape into the unknown. What Sania didn't know at the time, however, was how he would lead her to one of her most fascinating discoveries yet...


It was a gloomy day in Cleigne when Sania Yeager found herself indulging in one of her favourite pastimes—writing up her research notes. Now, although this sounded decidedly dull and uninteresting, Sania had long ago discounted what others thought of her hobbies, having always found the inner workings of the world around her to be far more fascinating than any other pastime she might engage in. With the sole exception of drawing, naturally. Sania could spend hours with her pen and paper, sketching the wildlife she saw around her in immaculate detail. She could still remember watching her grandfather do the same when she was young, and sitting by his side, trying to mimic the skilled, deft strokes he made as he effortlessly brought the world around him to life on paper.

Usually she reserved such indulgences to sunny, bright days, when her work was less likely to be destroyed by a sudden shower, and such were the conditions that day, with the clouds looming ominously overhead, every sign pointing to an incoming downpour. She was still outside though, busy writing notes on the interesting mutation she'd observed in her beloved frogs of late. More and more she was noticing signs that the wildlife of Eos was not as it should be, and she was beginning to feel as though something in the very core of the world had gone wrong somehow.

She had yet to voice her concerns to her fellow researchers—not from fear of ridicule, but because she still wanted to gather evidence of the phenomenon before she went public, and, if at all possible, offer some sort of solution to the problem plaguing Eos's wildlife. Some of those findings were what she was writing at that very moment, scribbling furiously away while everything still made sense in her head, ignoring the signs of a storm on the horizon. It was a ways off anyway, she still had time.

It was in this scene of relative peace and quiet, that a sudden and disruptive disturbance occurred. Sania had just reached a good break point, and it was just as well too, because at that very moment, Gerald, the smallest of her red frogs, covered with an interesting spattering of brown spots, leapt onto her notebook, and then out into the great unknown. Sania wasn't entirely sure of how he'd managed to escape his home with the other frogs, but one thing she did know was that she needed to get him back, and quickly.

Quickly stowing her notebook in her rucksack, she gave chase after Gerald, who, as it turned out, was an impressive sprinter. Or hopper, if she was being technical. Several times she almost despaired as he went leaping into a leafy bush or down under the roots of a tree. She never quite lost sight of him though, and so she kept in hot pursuit, chasing him relentlessly across the wetlands. The storm was well and truly brewing overhead now, and Sania became ever more eager to find Gerald and get back to her precious notes as quickly as possible.

Finally, after what must have been at least ten minutes, Sania's hands closed over the mischievous frog, grasping his slippery body tightly, to ensure he wouldn't escape her grasp again. Fortunately none of the red frogs appeared to be poisonous as far as she'd observed.

"Now what on Eos am I going to do with you, hmm?" she asked the despondent Gerald, who croaked weakly in response. "I'll let you and your friends go soon enough," she continued, beginning to head back towards her campsite, "I just need you for a little bit longer, alright?"

Gerald didn't seem to have much of an opinion on this, because he responded only by unenthusiastically kicking his back legs, trying fairly hopelessly to escape once more. Sania was about to reprimand him, when, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something approaching from above. Looking up at the sky, amongst the pervasive grey, she also managed to catch a glimpse of the tell-tale flash of silver that meant Imperials were approaching. Their airship was clearly about to settle nearby.

She quickened her pace as she approached her campsite, breaking out into a light jog as it came into view. She wasn't afraid of the Imperials, she'd kicked enough daemons to the curb to deal with mere metal monsters, but she feared for the safety of the animals in her care—animals that couldn't defend themselves with quite the level of skill she could. As soon as the frogs were in her line of sight, she returned Gerald to his friends and began setting out clearing away her things for the potentially long hike ahead of her.

It didn't take her long to collapse the tent and foldable chairs and tables, swiftly stuffing them into her rucksack, before hauling it onto her back. Taking her frogs in one hand and her medical kit in the other, she surveyed her handiwork with pride. Ten minutes to clear away a campsite had to be some sort of record! She didn't have long to celebrate though, because she could already hear the tell-tale clanking of the MTs getting closer and closer to her position. Thinking as quickly as she could, she saw a large tree with an extensive root system just to her left, and swiftly jumped underneath them, concealing herself from view.

She looked cautiously up from where she was hiding, and a large metal boot came into view just in front of the gap she was looking through, and as she stared at it, she saw something utterly bewildering. From between the gaps in the Imperial armour, she could clearly see some kind of black, oozing ichor—the very same she'd seen so often in the animals infected with the Starscourge. Could it be possible? Could the MTs really be infected with the Starscourge?

Her instincts were telling her: Sania stop being silly—they're machines, obviously they can't have the Starscourge. But she couldn't simply ignore what she'd seen… A strange thought then crossed her mind. There were no daemons in Insomnia, and, as far as she knew, no MTs in Insomnia, and, most relevantly, no cases of the Starscourge in Insomnia. The scientist in her desperately wanted to see the statistics of cases of the Starscourge before and after MTs started to rise in prominence among the forces of Niflheim. But that was almost something akin to a fever dream what with how tightly Niflheim was controlling any information coming out of Tenebrae.

She almost sighed aloud to her herself, but remembered just in the nick of time that doing that may well jeopardise her life, and instead just breathed in deeply. It didn't take too long for the Imperials to leave after that, she suspected that they had a different target in mind than her frogs. Emerging from the safety of the tree once more, she began her lengthy trek towards the outpost at Alstor Slough—there were some things there she needed to take care of, and more importantly—some information she needed to find out.


End file.
